Mouthpiece for musical brass wind instruments and the like



Nov. 17, 1942'. J. w. DOBIE MOUTHPIECE FOR MUSICAL BRASS WIND INSTRUMENTS AND THE LIKE Filed Dec. 5, 1.941

Patented Nov. 17, 1942 MOUTHPIECE FOR MUSICAL BRASS WIND INSTRUMENTS AND THE LIKE Joseph W. Dobie, Grove City, Pa., assignor of onehalf to Fred L Schweitzer, Meadville, Pa.

Application December 5, 1941, Serial No. 421,802

6 Claims.

the character described which is easy to play and gives the player a better control of the volume of air delivered into the instrument and, at the same time, minimizes lip fatigue, insensibility and injury.

With the foregoing and other objects and advantages to be attained, as will hereinafter more fully appear, the invention consists in the novel construction and provisions in the mouthpiece as hereinafter described and defined in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawing illustrating a practical embodiment of the invention, in which Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the entire mouthpiece;

Figure 2 is a view of the cup end of the mouthpiece mainly in elevation but with a portion in cross section on the line 22 of Figure l; and

Figure 3 is a cross section on the line 33 of Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, the

numeral I designates generally the tubular stem portion of the mouthpiece, which, externally, is cylindrical, but the bore 2 thereof being flared to the outer end of the stem from a restricted orifice 3 at its inner end. The cup portion 4 of the mouthpiece, which, as shown, is integral with the stem portion l, is formed with a tone chamber 5 the mouth opening 6 of which is surrounded by a rounded annular bead 1 inside thereof. The tone chamber 5 has a restricted outlet orifice 8 which is communicably connected with the orifice 3 of the stem portion of the mouthpiece by an expansion chamber 9 located in a neck portion I0 between the stem portion I and cup portion 2 of the mouthpiece, the orifice 8 being of much smaller diameter than the orifice 3.

The stem bore 2, tone chamber 5, expansion chamber 9 and the orifices of communication 3 and 8 between these portions of the mouthpiece are formed without any abrupt obstruction therein, that is to say, they are streamlined and formed with compound curvature throughout the extent thereof except the stem bore 2 which is frusto-conical. As shown, the tone chamber 5 is slightly undercut, as at H, by the provision of the internal annular bead 1 at the mouth of the cup, and from the point II to approximately a point I2, the tone chamber 5 is concave, as at I 3, whence it is formed convex, as at I4, and continues thus through the restricted orifice 8 and into the expansion chamber 9, which latter is spheroidal, that is to say, it is preferably longitudinally elongated and being of circular cross section and elliptical longitudinal section. In this connection, it is noted that the chamber 9 is made of a capacity proportionate to that of the tone chamber 5 and the diameter and longitudinal elongation of said chamber 9 may be accordingly varied in different mouth pieces. The expansion chamber 9 is also convex, as at [5, in its contracted portion which merges with the orifice 3 through which the chamber communicates with the flared bore 2 of the stem portion I of the mouthpiece. The concave outer portion [3 of the expansion chamber 5 is comparatively shallow, that is to say, its depth is less than the diameter of the mouth opening 6 of the cup.

By the provision of a mouthpiece in accordance with the present invention, the internally beaded mouth opening of the cup comfortably receives the players lips in proper sealing relation to the opening and gives the player complete control of his lips in producing the sounds in the regular way throughout a long period of playing and greatly minimizes lip fatigue and incidental insensibility and injury to the lips as often results from the use of the ordinary mouthpiece. The peculiarly concave outer portion of the tone chamber 5 adjacent the lip beading 1, together with the reversely curved contracted inner portion of the chamber, makes it easier for the player to move and control his lips in producing the desired tone in either high or low register, and

- the peculiarly shaped expansion chamber 9 which,

in effect, is the main feature of the present invention, connected as it is to the tone chamber 5 by the restricted orifice 8 in streamlined relation therebetween, and the chamber being in balanced capacity with relation to the tone chamber, perfect tone and pitch is maintained and carried into the flared bore 2 of the stem portion of the mouthpiece, and the flow of air into the instrument body proper is eased due to the streamline orifice 3 between the expansion chamber 9 and the stem bore 2 being of larger diameter than the orifice 8 between the tone chamber and the expansion chamber 9. In other words, the chamber 9 allows quick expansion of the air which carries the lip vibration into the expansion chamber wherein a re-formation of the vibrating air occurs before passing through the orifice 3 into the tapering passageway formed by the bore 2 of the stem portion of the mouthpiece. The advantage of this expansion chamber, as provided in the mouthpiece, is that it gives a greater volume and better quality of tone to the instrument and prevents the loss of pitch in soft passages inv either high or low tones. The expansion cham-- ber together with the peculiar form of tone chamber makes it easier to play theinstrume'nt, as the player has a better control of the volume of air delivered into the instrument as well as in the sound effect produced by movement of the lips.

While the form and arrangement of the mouth piece as illustrated in thedrawing and herein described embodies. apracticaladaptation of the invention, it is obvious that considerable alteration and modification is .possible within the spirit and scope of the invention as definedinthe appended claims. The invention, therefore, is not limited to the specific construction and arrangement shown. I

- Whatisclamed is: a

1. A mouthpiece for musicalbrass wind instruments and the like, comprising a tubularstem portion and a mouth-cup portion connected by an intermediate neck portion, the mouth-cup portion having an initial tonechamber directly inward from the lip opening thereof, said tone chamber merging into a restricted orifice, the bore of the tubular stein portion being tapered and fiared from a restricted orificeat thecinner end thereof to its outer end, and the neck portion having an expansion chamber formed therein in connection with the aforesaid orifices, and the wall surfaces of the initial tone chamber, expansion chamber and orifices being formed with compound curvature to provide merging concave and convex portions throughout the length of the mouth-cup and neck portions from the lip opening of the mouth-cup to the orifice of communication between the expansion chamber and bore of the tubular stem portion.

2.- A mouthpiece for musical brass wind instruments and the like, comprising a tubular stern portion and a mouth-cup portion connected by an intermediate neck portion, the mouthecup portion having an initial tone chamber directly inward from the lip opening thereof, said tone chamber merging into avrestricted orifice, the bore of the tubular stem portion being tapered and fiared from a restricted orifice at the inner end thereof to its outer end,.the orifice of the and orifices being formed with compound curvature to provide merging concave and convex portions throughout the length of the mouthcup and neck portions from the lip opening of the mouth-cup to the orifice of communication between the expansion chamber and bore of the tubular stem portion.

3. The herein described mouthpiece for musical brass wind instruments and the like, comprising a tubular stem portion and a mouth-cup portion connected by an intermediate neck portion, the bore of the stem portion being tapered and fiared from a restricted orifice at the inner end thereof to its outer end, the mouth-cup having an initial tone chamber therein, the outer portion of said chamber being concave annularly adjacent the lip opening of the mouth-cup and the inner portion of the chamber converging with convex curvature from the concave outer portion thereof and merging into a. restricted orifice of lesser diameter than that of the orifice at the inner end of the bore in the stem portion, and the neck portion having a spheroidal expansion chamber formed therein of a maximum diameter greater than that of said orifice .at the inner, end of thebore of the stem portion, the wall portions of the expansion chamber adjacent both of the aforesaid orifices respectively merging with the orifices with convex curvature.

.4. The mouthpiece structure as set forth in claim 1 and further describing the mouth-cup as I provided with an internal, annular, rounded bead I brass wind instruments and the like, comprising a tubular stem portion and a mouth-cup portion connected by an intermediate neck portion, the bore of the stemportion being tapered and flared from arestricted orifice at the inner end thereof to its outer, end, the mouth-cup having an initial tone chamber therein, the outer portion of said chamber being concave annularly adjacent the lip opening of the mouth-cup, said annular concave portion of the chamber being of a depth less than. the diameter of the lip opening, and the tone chamber being of minimum diameter less inner portion of the chamber converging. with convex curvature from the concave outer portion thereof and merging into a restricted orifice of. lesser diameter than that of the orifice at the inner end of the bore in the stem portion, and the neck portion having a spheroidal expansion chamber. formed therein of a maximum diameter greater than that of said orifice at the inner end of the bore of the stem portion, the wall portions of the expansion chamber adjacent both of the aforesaid orifices respectively. merging with the orifices with convex curvature.

' JOSEPH W. DOBIE. 

